Getting Old: It’s Inevitable, or Is It?

I have a hypothesis about “getting old.” I think this phenomenon of aging which most of us believe is normal and inevitable may, in fact, not be inevitable at all!

As we get older we look around at the majority of our friends and family and witness them, like us, going through dramatic (and unpleasant) body changes. We put on pounds and lose our hair; our skin becomes flaccid and wrinkled; our eyes grow rheumy and dull; our movement becomes slow and painful as our spines twist and gnarl. We sigh and say we are “getting old” and resign ourselves to the “aging process” as being “just the way it is.”

But I believe these symptoms we call “aging” may be something else entirely.

I believe what we describe as aging may instead be the effects of resignation caused from settling into a limited definition of who we are. As we resign ourselves to such limited identities, we lose vital life flow and begin to experience the symptoms we call aging. Such symptoms are more likely the results of living out our unhappy story about what we expect from life!

When we believe such thoughts as, I am unloved, not good enough, a failure; I am worth-less than, ill, unfortunate, deprived, and/or at the mercy of life, we feel and act accordingly. Our bodies take on these unhappy stories & wears them literally “in the flesh.”

In short, when we live primarily from the mind-set of a victim, (The definition of the state of victimhood being to blame something/someone outside ourselves as the cause of our internal state of being, rather than to recognize that our thoughts & beliefs are the sole cause of our unhappiness.) our bodies suffer the results of that mind-set, and we experience the limitations in our physical body that the victim-ego imposes on us through our stress-inducing stories. We have come to see these characteristics as, what we call, “getting old.”

I speak from personal experience. Several years ago, I began a daily process of “dropping the limited story” using a mind/body process. At the time of initiating my personal and spiritual rejuvenation, I was 54 years old and 55 pounds overweight. I was suffering from chronic liver disease that was debilitating. In addition, my back, legs and feet hurt so bad that I had to force myself to do any form of exercise at all. My energy level was sorely depleted and I felt disheartened and futile about ever feeling really good again.

Then one morning (Dec 16, 2006, to be exact) I heard an internal prompting that told me I did not have to settle for my present state of being. I realized I had tools I had been gathering for years that, through faith and practice, could indeed transform my life experience. I wasted no time. I decided to use my life as a laboratory; my body became the testing ground for the tools and principles I had been teaching for years.

And I discovered that the tools work! They are still working for me today!

As I began to drop my limiting stories about myself and others, and let go of painful notions about life being hard and unfair, my whole body started shifting dramatically! As I practiced daily alignment with the Limitless Universal Source I began to see an entirely different world from the world created by my limited story. As my unhappy story dropped away so did the extra pounds (without dieting). Friends and family began to comment on how changed I was. I was told I looked years younger and indeed I felt years younger! I began to realize the fulfillment of a potential I had previously only dreamed of!

Instead of “getting old,” I have grown stronger, more agile than ever before! But the change has not only been only in the physical! More importantly I began to experience a degree of mental and emotional freedom I never dreamed possible!

So I have come to question the notion that “getting old” is just part of life. There are two requirements as I see it, for maintaining a youthful life: an agile mind and a flexible spine … and these come about through a process of freeing ourselves of old, limiting story about who we are and what is possible for us!

The mind and body together create a vehicle designed to carry us, in health and well being, right up to the day we depart for our big adventure into the Great Unknown! Therefore it’s imperative that we take care of our “ride” if we want to have the best journey through life!

Hi, Lynne! Pixie passed along this post on LinkedIn and I read it, then bookmarked your blog to share with friends. I love this post – expresses SO WELL what I have learned and believe to be true: “what we describe as aging may instead be the effects of resignation caused from settling into a limited definition of who we are.” I started to write my own blog on the “aging myth”, and you say it so well, I can share your prose. Thank you for writing. I am a “fan”! Sarah

Thank you for dropping in, Pixie. It’s nice to hear from you!
Yes, I can imagine our paths crossing again … until then, I so appreciate a soul friend stopping by to share. 🙂 Blessings for a wonderful Thanksgiving. Lynne

Lynn, wonderful post! Age IS just a number. I agree with everything you said. We can choose how we age. We can choose to believe the story we’re told and the story we tell ourselves or not. At the moment, I’m 51 yo, recovering from ACL reconstruction surgery after a knee injury while playing soccer with 30 yos. I’m in such good shape that the rehab is going to allow me to return to soccer better than I was before. I too, practice alignment and have changed my story.